Euroweenies In Panic Mode

Sarkozy warning on EU expansion
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said the European Union will not be able to expand further without ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.

An EU summit in Brussels has exposed divisions over how to proceed with the reform treaty - which was rejected by Irish voters in a referendum last week.

A decision on what to do next is expected to be postponed until October.

The leaders are now expected to discuss Zimbabwe. A draft statement threatens increasing EU sanctions on the country.

Wrong signal

Mr Sarkozy's comments about EU expansion came after clear divisions emerged over the future of the treaty and the meeting decided that the Irish should report back in October on possible ways out of the impasse.

"Without the Treaty of Lisbon there won't be any enlargement," he said.

"You can't say no to reforms and yes to enlargement."

The BBC's Jonny Dymond says one diplomat described Mr Sarkozy's comments as a threat - and the wrong signal to send to the Irish people - and those of Croatia and Turkey, who hope to join the 27-member bloc.

Mr Sarkozy did add that he would travel to Ireland when France takes over the rotating EU presidency in July to help find a solution.

The treaty must be ratified by all member states to take effect. Nineteen have approved it so far, the latest of which was the UK, where it passed through parliament on Wednesday.

Czech brakes

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso urged respect for the Irish "No" vote but said he was confident all the countries would complete the ratification process. He ruled out renegotiating the reform treaty.

"When a treaty is signed by 27 governments it's not just for fun," he said. "It's inconceivable that a government signs a treaty without the intention of ratifying it. It's a principle of international law."

And it's a principle of Euroean Union conventions that all member states must ratify a constitution treaty. Big difference, asshat. In a free, fair and transparent election, the people of Ireland said NO to the European Constitution Treaty of Lisbon. Get it?

Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, whose country is the current holder of the EU presidency, said enlargement should not be a victim of the delay in ratifying the treaty.

"I believe we'll find a way out of the situation before any candidate country is ready for a decision on accession to be taken in the EU," he said. "I don't think the commission wants to slow down the process."

In effect telling Sarkozy to go . . . himself.

Germany rejected the idea of moving ahead on Lisbon without Ireland, which won strong Czech backing at the summit.

Our correspondent says concern is swirling around the intentions of the Czech government.

Pressed on whether he intended to ratify the treaty, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said that he was not going to put the brakes on to halt ratification.

But he added he would not bet 100 crowns (£3; $6) on a "Yes" from parliament.

[....]

Read the rest at The BBC

EU Set To Take 'Moral High Ground'

Instead of capitulating to the EUSSR, maybe Gordon Brown should rethink his grand plan of denying the Brits his previously promised referendum on the new EU Constitution Treaty of Lisbon.

EU aims for moral high ground with swingeing climate change package

A blueprint for tackling global warming was put on the table yesterday by the EU, which challenged the US and other big polluters worldwide to join the battle against climate change. Setting out plans for the world's first significant low-carbon economy, the EU ordered swingeing cuts in greenhouse gas emissions which included challenging targets for Britain.

Under draft legislation unveiled by the European commission, 20% of Europe's energy mix is to come from renewable sources by 2020, while Europe's biggest polluting industries must slash their emissions by 21% against 2005 levels by the same deadline.

The climate change package, senior officials in Brussels said, would give the EU the moral high ground, letting it lead the drive for a new, post-Kyoto international bargain on global warming with the US, China and India.

Moral high ground taken by a bunch of amoral hacks. rofl

While the overall aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the EU by 363m tonnes, or 20%, by 2020, Stavros Dimas, the environment commissioner, said the scheme included "automatic triggers" to take the cuts to the level of 30% if the remainder of the world signed up for similar action.

"Climate change is the great project of our generation," said José Manuel Barroso, the commission president. "Europe can be the first economy for the low-carbon age ... The package is the most far-reaching legislative proposals made by the European commission for many years."

Other than seizing the national sovreignty of member states, what other 'far-reaching legislative proposals' have been made?

The EU executive laid out binding targets for each of the 27 member countries on emissions reductions and on renewable energy in order to reach the goal of the 20% cut in greenhouse gases, as well as the 20% target for Europe's energy mix being provided by renewables, and 10% of all road fuel deriving from biofuels.

Barroso put the cost of the package at about €3 a week for every European - the price of three tanks of petrol a year.

Cool. Let the EU pay for it out of its budget - without increasing member 'fees'.

The bulk of the reduction in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions is to be obtained through a carbon trading scheme in which the union's biggest industrial polluters, such as power generators and oil refineries, buy and sell emission permits. The "price of carbon" is expected to rise and the hope is that the market will deliver the compulsory cuts.

In the sectors not involved in the carbon trading scheme, such as transport, farming, and construction, national caps are being imposed.

The British government welcomed the commission's draft, which orders a 16% cut in emissions by Britain by 2020. The UK is also obliged to increase its reliance on renewable energy, from less than 2% now to 15% of the country's total energy needs by the same date.

Hide your wallets, folks.

The environment secretary, Hilary Benn, said: "This plan shows exactly what we are aiming for globally - a comprehensive and effective agreement to tackle climate change, with the carbon market at its heart."

John Hutton, the business secretary, said the government would review its strategy to meet the UK share of the EU renewables target. "This package will show the EU's continuing global leadership on climate change. I want to see it agreed as soon as possible to give business the certainty it needs to plan low-carbon investments with confidence."

Better results if market forces were allowed to work free of government interference, but try explaining that to a socialist.

Environmental pressure groups sounded broadly satisfied with the package, which has to go through the European parliament and be endorsed by national governments before becoming law, perhaps in a year's time.

"A work in progress", was the verdict of Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN intergovernmental panel on climate change. "I see no reason why some of these targets may not become stronger, may not become more stringent."

Barroso said the package would unleash a money-spinning bonanza in Europe and urged EU firms to seize the opportunity to become global leaders in innovative green technologies. He predicted hundreds of thousands of new jobs, insisting that the overall €60bn cost would be less than 0.5% of Europe's economic output.

For some reason, I'm quite confident that comrade Barroso will not do the honorable thing should the cost be more.

The scheme would save €50bn a year in reduced oil and gas imports, he said. Bowing to pressure from energy-intensive industries such as the steel and cement sectors, which have threatened to pull out of Europe if the measures cripple their competitiveness, the commission held out the prospect of free pollution permits under the carbon trading scheme.

This came amid warnings that it would be "economic suicide" to penalise the sectors too heavily. But big energy groups, which amassed huge profits in the early stages of the trading scheme, will have to bid at auction for all their permits from 2013.

The commission says that by 2020, this will be adding 5%, or about €150, a year to household bills, though its own officials say that the rise could be 15%.

In other words, they haven't a clue.

A decision on free permits for sectors hit by competition from low-cost countries is to be taken from 2010 onwards.

Via The Guardian

al-Gore was too busy doing paperwork to comment.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * I agree with Professor Richard Lindzen from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who said: “future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century’s developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age”. --- Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Memo to Barroso

Previously: Global Warming Scam to Cost EU $100 Billion

See also Reality Confronts European Union.

Global Warming Scam to Cost EU $100 Billion

Naturally, it's referred to now as climate change. You can also bet your last dollar that this $100 billion figure will wind up being a fraction of what actually gets spent in the long run.

And, of course, it won't matter one bit.

So when we get to the year 2020, and nothing has been accomplished for the enormous sum spent, we'll be told it wasn't enough.

EUROPEAN Union plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions could cost at least €60 billion ($99.88 billion) a year, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said today.

"Taking action is not cost free, although we think we can limit the cost of our proposals to around 0.5 per cent of gross domestic product," he said, according to remarks prepared for delivery in London.

Mr Barroso's total estimate, which will apply for the next 12 years, counts on the 27 EU nations undertaking all the commission's recommendations, in a package to be unveiled Wednesday, in an extremely cost efficient manner.

The bill for reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels - the baseline goal of EU leaders - was previously estimated to be 1.0 per cent of European GDP, or €120 billion ($199.75 billion) a year.

EU leaders agreed in March last year that this target was the best way to contain global warming to less than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, as recommended by UN climate experts.

On the positive side, Mr Barroso said: "Our proposals should reduce Europe's reliance on imported gas and oil by around €50 billion ($83.23 billion) by 2020. These are figures with a real impact on our growth and prosperity".

He said the cost of inaction, as calculated by one of his key climate advisers, "could even approach 20 per cent of GDP.
The longer we delay, the higher the costs of adaptation and mitigation".

The commission's package aims to strengthen the EU's emissions trading system, set targets for renewable energy use and review rules on national aid for environmental purposes.

When the bloc's leaders set their goals last year, they offered to go 10 per cent better than their own target, cutting emissions by 30 per cent over the same period if others were prepared to match it, as an incentive to major polluters.

They also set a binding target for renewable energy to provide 20 per cent of Europe's needs by 2020, compared to 8.5 per cent currently, and agreed that this should be achieved by some countries doing more than others.

But less than a year later, many EU countries - not to mention industry - have criticised the package they had asked the commission to draw up to reach their goals as either being too costly or too damaging to certain sectors.

With this mystical ability to control the weather, why can't they simply snap their fingers and make it so?

Meanwhile, in other globwarm news, the Swedes will now be joining the Canadians in studying the devastating effects of bovine belching.

I kid you not.

A Swedish university has received $590,000 in research funds to measure the greenhouse gases released when cows belch.

About 20 cows will participate in the project run by the Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala, about 40 miles north of Stockholm, officials said Monday.

Cattle release methane, a greenhouse gas believed to contribute to global warming, when they digest their food.